For years, probably six, hubs and I and the children catch caterpillars, and put them in jars and bug cages. We feed them fresh grass and tree leaves and spray a fine mist for water.
We always hop to see them cocoon and , eventually, turn into butterflies. Late last yea we gathered some caterpillars and for the first time, had a successful cocoonage. Unfortunately nothing happened after that.
The other day I was at a friends house, her place was crawling, literally with hundreds of caterpillars. She offered me a jar and me and Logan caught eight of them and brought them home. For two days they sat in the jar with wilted leaves and no air holes waiting for me to get off my duff and transfer them to the larger bug habitat.
This afternoon, Logan and I went into the woods to gather fresh grasses and leaves for the transfer. We pulled the tick out of the jar and were happy to note that there were five happy crawly caterpillars on it. I turned the jar over to capture the last three, only to have leaves and caterpillar poo fall out. Just as I was about to reach my hand in the jar to scrape them out, I saw three cocoons!
I'm a bit upset that I did not get them transfered to their proper habitat before they reached this stage, but that is way overshadowed with the joy that they have actually cocooned. we have NEVER, in all the years we have captured them, had caterpillars cocoon so fast!
Needless to say I am very excited about this, and hope to see butterflies soon!
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